Crowd sourcing is the art and business of drawing upon the resources of a groups (millions) of people. In this article I will discuss two such companies where I am lead investor that leverage the crowd: Getaround and CureTogether.

Getaround draws upon the resources owned by people – vehicles. CureTogether draws upon the knowledge of experience from people – chronic medical conditions.

Thinking Exponentially, crowd sourcing is a fundamentally different way of doing things. Being able to draw upon the resources of the many opens up almost epic opportunity. Historically speaking this approach simply did not scale, thanks to the Internet – that has all changed.

The Internet has created efficiencies that did not exist before. Technology has enabled the many to many communication medium. A large group of people can now easily communicate with other large groups of people. With the recent developments in mobile and smart phones, bringing people together has never been easier.

There are many examples of this trend. AirBnB.com makes it possible for anyone to rent their room or home to anyone. Meetup.com allows for people who share common interests to easily connect.

Getaround.com is a car rental company where almost anyone can rent anyone else’s vehicle. Its a brilliant business model. Your car sits idle for 90% on any given day. Why not have it generate revenue? Which is why I am their lead investor. Getaround recently won TechCrunch NY and raised almost $14MM.

Thinking Exponentially, there is a key trend which will elevate Getaround to the next level. Self driving cars will make it possible for anyone to order almost anyone else’s car on demand and delivered. Imagine being in your office, order someone else’s car to come and pick you up (by itself), it takes you to a destination, and then drives itself home. Your car could be a full time taxi in its spare time.

Their iPhone app is stunning and shows what is possible. Note how you can browse for cars in your neighbourhood and easily book a set of wheels.

Getaround makes the process of renting someone else’s car seamless. The provide a means to finding a car to rent, handle the financial transaction and provide insurance.

I am also the lead investor in CureTogether. Since they have been acquired, a detailed explanation is available. CureTogether draws upon the experiences of its users to address chronic medical conditions. Migraines, back ache, and hundreds of others.

What made CureTogether such an amazing company is the wisdom from thousands of people in dealing with chronic conditions could be centralized. Enabling the sharing of treatments, strategies and methods in handling chronic medical issues. There was strong group motivation to get issues addressed.

Its similar in principle to Getaround in that the resources of many is available to all.

Crowd sourcing has disrupted countless industries. This is only the beginning.